In the early hours of September 15, 2008 Lehman Brothers announced it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, setting off shock waves through the global economy that had devastating implications for families and businesses. In the months before the President took office, the economy was shrinking at a rate of more than 8 percent and we were losing 800,000 jobs a month.
There's no diminishing the severity of the challenge we've overcome together, and we’ve got a lot more work to do to rebuild an economy where everyone who works hard has a chance to get ahead. Learn more about how you can help to build on this progress. Or download the report: The Financial Crisis: Five Years Later.
But five years after Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy, we want to help everyone get the context and see the full picture. To mark the anniversary, we've asked senior staff from across the Obama administration to sit down and talk about the moments when key decisions were made — the factors they weighed, the results of the actions that President Obama took. Check out a behind-the-scenes look of the decision-making process that you won't find anywhere else.